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Development and design

Snips is an excitable and goofy pony, often entering a fit of eager jumping at the slightest inclination. He is an unusually short and round pony, much like Truffle Shuffle, and is possibly the smallest unicorn in all Ponyville,[2][3] other than babies such as Pumpkin Cake. He is characterized by his small eyes, buck teeth, high and scratchy voice, short light brown mane and tail, and large brown eyebrows. These features grant him a unique appearance in comparison to the other residents of Ponyville. His irises are usually not visible, similarly to those of Snails, but they are visible in the IDW comics' Friendship is Magic Issue #8story, being brown.

His cutie mark, a pair of scissors, is explained by him in the IDW comics' Friendship is Magic Issue #10 story Zen and the Art of Gazebo Repair - Part Deux "If You Only Have a Hammer, You See Every Problem as a Nail" as meaning that he is "excellent at cutting all things".

Both Snips, as well as partner-in-crime Snails, are named after the traditional nursery rhyme What Are Little Boys Made Of. A version of the verse goes:

What are little boys made of?

Snips and snails and puppy dogs' tails.

That's what little boys are made of.

Depiction in the series

Season one

Snips and Snails giving Trixie a smoothie

Snips makes his debut in Boast Busters, where he and Snails sweep Spike up over their horns when he and Snails run to see Trixie. After Trixie's show, both he and Snails adoringly pester her to tell them the story of how she defeated the ursa major, but she declines. When Spike later asks about her, Snips refers to her as "G an' P T" which he explains means "Great and Powerful Trixie." In response to Spike's skepticism about the ursa major encounter, Snips and Snails venture into the Everfree Forest to attempt to bring one to Ponyville to watch Trixie defeat it. Snips and Snails are shocked to discover Trixie made up her boastful claims, and slightly embarrassed when Twilight Sparkle points out they woke up the baby ursa minor and made it cranky, endangering all of Ponyville. They humbly accept their punishment for bringing the ursa into town. However, the "punishment" turns out only to be them receiving mustaches from Twilight's magic.

Their next appearance is in The Show Stoppers, performing a magic act for the talent show. Snails ruins the act by eating the prop carrots, causing Snips to give chase. The two win medals for "best magic act", and argue over whose is better.

In The Cutie Pox, they marvel at Apple Bloom's hooping skills along with the rest of the school foals and try learning from her how to do it themselves. Snips blushes when Apple Bloom helps him with his hoop. When she suddenly gets a second cutie mark, this time for spinning plates, he and Snails challenge her to demonstrate it which she does much to their surprise.

In The Mysterious Mare Do Well, he is seen attending a meeting of the Official Rainbow Dash fan club, where he and Scootaloo debate over which word would best describe Rainbow Dash. Someone finally suggests 'super-ultra-extreme-awesome-mazing'. All members of the fan club agree with this, and a camera pan reveals that it was none other than Rainbow Dash herself who had suggested it.

In Ponyville Confidential, he and Snails are first seen complimenting Featherweight on his cutie mark. Later, Sweetie Belle discovers them together, fighting over how to get gum out of their hair. Snails kicks Snips to see if the gum will get off, but Snips whiplashes back, causing the gum to bind them tighter together. Snails begins to scream hysterically for the gum to be removed. Sweetie Belle asks Featherweight to get their picture, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders use them as their first story. The two take it in stride, happy to be featured in the paper and have the gum removed with patches of their hair removed in the process. When the Cutie Mark Crusaders look for another story, Snips and Snails get themselves stuck in gum again, but the Crusaders decide not to cover the same story twice.

Season three

Snip and Snails forced into labor

In the episode Magic Duel, he and Snails appear once again with Trixie. This time, Trixie becomes angry with their antics, and fuses their horns together. She later separates them, but uses them as targets for her age magic, making Snails an old pony, and Snips a baby. Later in the episode, Trixie uses them to pull her wheel-less carriage, which she eventually converts into a massive golden bed. Snips comments that he misses "the days when she was just a fraud!" Trixie uses them for her age magic again near the end of the episode, this time changing them both into babies.

Season four

Snips appears in Flight to the Finish along with Snails. When Ms. Harshwhinny informs Cheerilee's class of the flag-carrying auditions for the Equestria Games, Snips and Snails entertain the idea of auditioning, to the ridicule of their classmates.

Season five

Depiction in films

A human version of Snips appears with the human Snails in My Little Pony Equestria Girls. In contrast to their benevolence in the series, they become supporting antagonists in the human world. He and Snails are the bumbling minions of Sunset Shimmer and obey her commands.

They record Twilight struggling to cope with the humans' ways and make it into a video that briefly turns Twilight into a laughingstock. When this fails to have Twilight give up, they trash the school gym, the setting of the Fall Formal, but this once again fails to get Twilight to surrender. During the Fall Formal, they kidnap Spike, leading Twilight and her new friends to chase them out to the schoolyard. When their boss puts on the crown and turns into a demon, she turns them into demons as well. In the end, they, along with Sunset Shimmer, are made to repair the damage they have caused.

Snips appears with Snails, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and various other Canterlot High students in the cafeteria when the Dazzlings arrive and turn the musical showcase into a Battle of the Bands. At the Mane Event, Snips and Snails participate as rappers. His rapper name is "MC Snips". During the Rainbooms' performance of Shake Your Tail, he and Snails take advantage of Fluttershy's stage fright by shining a spotlight on her. The two are defeated in the first round of the tournament by Bulk Biceps, shown during the Dazzlings' song Under Our Spell.